AIBU - To pause kids swimming lessons in cold weather?

[Wonderchill]

Do you keep sending kids for swimming lessons in cold weather or take a break for a few months? Theses are not school lessons, but paid. We walk DS, 6yrs old to a local pool on Saturday mornings.

The hot chocolate on the way home is the reason my kids want to go to their swimming lessons 😆

Where do you live? Northern Finland?

No.

Unless the pool is outdoor, which I doubt, then continue! How ridiculous. My kids swim throughout the year.

The day hes in the sea or a lake or river and gets into trouble will have nothing to do with the weather, he needs to learn to swim and be a good swimmer, and why do you walk in winter surely if its too hot drive or get the bus

Is this rage bait?

Too cold

For me it’s not really anything to do with swimming specifically, I just find it odd to stop doing an indoor hobby in winter simply because the walk is cold.

If you're worried about the cold, use a hairdryer on their hair and plop on a wooly hat.

In Northern Finland no one worries about going to the pool in cold weather! Many swim outside year round (hole in the ice in winter) so walking home after being in a warm pool is a non-issue-

Dry robe

Keep the lessons. Such an important life skill. And you may not get the slot back; round here you wouldn't.

Lordy. Yes! They wore a onesie over their clothes to keep snug and had a bath when we got home. But my kids also go out in the rain wearing puddle suits and wellies, the snow wearing hat and scarves, and basically get on with life throughout the year unless there’s extenuating circumstances

Its fantastic exercise in the colder months. Can't have six months of the year snuggling up with hot chocolates under blankets 24/7 can we? Kids have huge amounts of energy to expend. I go insane in the winter months if we don't get out every day doing some kind of activity and DD doesn't sleep as well.

We’ve always kept DC going to swimming lessons year round unless they’re ill or we have plans (holidays etc) that clash with that week’s lessons.

I’d never considered taking a break for several months just because it’s winter.
Maybe the occasional week if the weather’s so bad with excessive snow that we couldn’t actually get to the pool safely, but not just because it’s cold. Drying the DC off properly and layering their clothes up should be enough to deal with that!

Plus wouldn’t you either be paying for lessons that you don’t use, or risking not being able to get the DC back into lessons in spring if there’s waiting lists?

🤦‍♀️😂

very precious and OTT.

Is it an unheated outdoor pool?

I’ll buck the trend and support you here OP. It’s not the cold, it’s the germs. When my kids did swim
lessons over winter it was just constant colds and coughs. One year we didn’t do lessons as it clashed with another club, and we had an illness free season.

keep going. Hat/hair towel/dry hair if long walk home. Warm clothes.

unless you child has a medical condition that makes them extremely vulnerable

Depends what kind of child you want to raise

I think mine had onesies and wooly hats for after swimming, sometimes with their coats on. It's not even really cold yet, loads of kids are up on weekend mornings doing outdoor sports. We can't stop because of the weather.

No. Why on earth would you? Indoor swimming pools are usually lovely and warm. If yours isn’t then it worth a word with staff. Just make sure child is well wrapped up outside afterwards and maybe blow dry hair in changing area.

Good luck getting back into lessons! You stop, you lose your place…
also, do you stop sending them to school? Going outside in winter?

We didn’t. If you pause them now it will
only then take longer in the summer to catch up what they have slipped behind on/forgotten.

Also you can’t pause school when it gets colder/wetter so it’s not really preparing them for the real world when school and work carry on through winter and bad weather is it?

Children in Finland manage to walk and cycle to.school and continue playing sports and swimming all year round, even at minus 17c.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/07/finland-blazes-trail-in-keeping-citizens-cycling-and-healthy?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

When I learned to swim, our only pool was outdoors and unheated and in the next town. Lessons started after Easter so it hadn't had a chance to warm up (not that it ever did tbh). We went after school so it was a walk to the bus stop (about a quarter of a mile), another quarter of a mile from bus station to the pool, swim in cold water, a plastic cup of "hot chocolate" from the vending machine (this always had a few bits of noodle or dessicated vegetable from the chicken soup option floating in it), quarter of a mile back to the bus station and a further mile's walk up the track to home. All 3 of us are still here!